[7][8] It remained a Joint station until nationalisation, having been jointly owned by the MS&LR and L&NWR and used by the L&YR, then the MS&LR became the Great Central Railway (GCR) during whose tenure the Midland Railway also started to use the station.

[12] From 1882 the L&NWR built their own line to Stalybridge from Denton Junction (to the south of Guide Bridge) with the southerly section to Dukinfield and Ashton station opening on 2 October 1882 and the remaining section into Stalybridge opening on 1 August 1893 for goods and 7 August 1893 for passengers.

The station is one of very few to retain its original buffet, the 1998 refurbishment of which won awards from CAMRA and English Heritage.

[24] Following further refurbishment in 2012 Lord Pendry of Stalybridge, who often uses the buffet bar and contributed over half of the £6,000 costs, unveiled a plaque to mark the works.

[25] Michael Portillo visited the buffet bar in "Manchester Piccadilly to Silkstone Common", a 2017 episode of Great British Railway Journeys.

The project cost £20 million[30] as the station closed on Sundays throughout the summer of 2012 followed by a nine-day line blockade at the end of October but gives improved operational flexibility and reliability, allowed the line speed through the station and junction to be increased to 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) and left it ready for the electrification of the Leeds - Manchester trans-Pennine route which is currently ongoing and is scheduled to be finished in 2032.

As of January 2025, this service is excluded from Northern's amended Sunday timetable[35] due to the ongoing dispute with conductors.

The train ran on a Friday as the 09:22 Stockport to Stalybridge;[36] however, from the start of the summer 2018 timetable, the service shifted to Saturday and operates in both directions.

The new southbound train left at 08:46 for Stockport and returns from there at 09:45, arriving back at Stalybridge around 20 minutes later.

In the December 2023 timetable, it leaves Stalybridge at 08:30, and calls at Guide Bridge, Denton and Reddish South, arriving at Stockport at 08:59.